Top 7 Strategies for Landing Profitable Brand Deals
Whether you’re a long-time creator or brand new to the world of social media influencing, you’re probably searching for ways to maximize your revenue as a creator. Fortunately, that’s where landing brand deals come in. Although it can be easy to feel like your ideal brand deals are out of reach, with the right strategies, you can land your dream brand deals and maximize your success as a creator.
In this Collabstr article, we’ll be your guide to navigating the challenging world of brand deals, and offer our top 7 strategies for landing the best brand deals for you.
Do you have what brands are looking for?
First things first: To land the right brand deal, you need to find brands that are looking for influencers and understand what kind of expectations they have for the influencer working for them. There are three main criteria that most brands look for in a creator:
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Does your audience align with their targeted audience? A partnership is essentially useless if you aren’t marketing to the right crowd. When choosing a creator to work with, brands will typically look at your niche to see if their product matches the content on your platform. Brands value authenticity, so if you genuinely like and use the product, chances are your audience will too. As such, it’s vital to have a well-defined niche. (Don’t worry, we’ll cover that a little later in this article).
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What is your engagement rate like? While intuitively, you might think that brands would opt for creators with the largest followings possible, in truth, many brands value engagement more than follower count. Micro and nano influencers tend to have communities that are small but mighty, with loyal followers who align closely with the creator’s niche. Take @ihonestlyloved, for example:
She’s solidly in the realm of a micro-influencer, but her engagement rate is shockingly high. With over 40% of her followers engaging with her posts, it’s evident that her community is both tight-knit and highly loyal.
Now let’s take a look at another example: @therock. Although he has 345.9 million followers, his engagement rate is a mere 0.27%. This is not to say that a partnership with The Rock wouldn’t be ideal for a brand, but it does demonstrate the benefits of optimizing your engagement rate as a creator, even if your following is small.
In other words, brands look for more than just follower count when choosing a creator to partner with. (To explore your own and other influencers’ engagement rates, check out Collabstr’s free Instagram engagement rate calculator tool).
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Do you produce high-quality content? When vetting influencers, brands want to know that you know what you’re doing. Having a curated feed with professional photos and a clearly defined niche that matches theirs is a great way to peak brand interest.
How to choose your niche
Clearly, choosing the right niche is not only important, but it’s also essential. Your niche will attract a certain audience, which the right brand will be looking for. And, as the social media world becomes increasingly inundated, the more specific your niche, the better off you’ll be. So how do you choose a niche? Here are our top three tips:
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Find what inspires you: Don’t choose a niche based on the potential gains you can make from it. Instead, choose a niche that you’re passionate about. It could be anything from makeup to video games, music, etc. Talking about something you enjoy will make you seem more genuine to your audience.
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From there, figure out what will interest your audience: You’ll attract an audience that’s interested in your niche. So what topics would interest them the most? Consider how-tos, hacks, and pain points as a starting point to start planning your content.
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Research your competitors: Once you’ve found your niche, you need to figure out what you’re up against. Creators with similar niches and followings will be your competitors when landing brand deals, so figuring out how to differentiate yourself and stay relevant is essential.
How to land brand deals
Okay, now that you know what brands are looking for and you’ve narrowed down your niche, it’s time to land those brand deals. Let’s dive into the top strategies for catching the interest of brands.
Be authentic
One of the best tips for landing brand deals is not only to find your niche but stay authentic to it. Your niche is the hallmark of your personal brand, and brands want to know that the creators they’re working with can genuinely and effectively market their product.
Produce consistent content
The next step is to get as much exposure as possible. This will not only help you grow your following, but it will attract the attention of brands as well. Both followers and brands are more likely to be interested in you if they see that you are actively engaged in producing content.
On a related note, social media platforms are also more likely to favor you in the algorithm if you demonstrate a consistent habit of producing content.
Engage with your followers
Next, let’s work on boosting that engagement rate. Taking the time to interact with your followers through comments, DMs, and live streaming is a great way to build a loyal community and increase your engagement rate, which brands often look for when choosing a creator to work with.
Use influencer marketing platforms
Next, invest your attention in influencer marketing platforms. These are platforms specifically designed to match creators with the right brands for them–which is a win-win. Signing up for an account on Collabstr is a great way to increase your exposure to brands and market yourself by creating a professional profile.
Collabstr also offers helpful tools for both influencers and brands, such as influencer contract templates, influencer price calculators, and brief templates.
Make yourself accessible
Another key strategy to help you land your dream brand deal is to make it easy for brands to contact you. Picture this: your dream brand has stumbled upon your Instagram or TikTok profile. They see your high engagement rate and authentic, consistent content and want to reach out to you, but they can’t figure out how. They finally manage to find your contact info and send you a DM, but it gets lost amidst all of your other messages. They give up and choose a different influencer.
Anxiety-inducing scenario, right? Don’t let this happen to you. The best way to make sure that brands can contact you is to provide an email address in all of your social media bios, and then stay on top of your emails so you never miss a dream collaboration. Additionally, learning about hashtags and how to use them effectively will make it easier for brands to find you.
Create a compelling pitch
Another important part of landing brand deals is creating an effective and compelling pitch. The right pitch can seal the deal on an awesome brand deal, but a bland, generic one can result in an immediate rejection. So how do you create a compelling pitch? There are a few key elements you need to be aware of:
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It’s enthusiastic: Market yourself with enthusiasm. Explain who you are, your niche, and why you would be a great ambassador for their brand.
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It’s brief: Keep it concise and to the point. A lengthy pitch may bore the reader and result in a preliminary rejection.
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It contains an invitation: Don’t end your pitch without a solid invitation to act. Include your contact information and invite the brand to reach out to you.
Filter out less-ideal offers
Lastly, although it may feel counterintuitive, the key to landing the right brand deals is by rejecting those that don’t meet your requirements. When you’ve done your part to market yourself correctly, chances are good that offers will come rolling in.
When they do, it’s important to carefully consider each offer and whether the product is something you can authentically promote. Does it fit your niche? Will it appeal to your followers? If the answer is no, chances are it’s not the best opportunity for you.
It’s also important to be on the lookout for scams. As the social media world grows, so do the accompanying scammers, and the last thing you want is to lose money or get scammed in another way that will harm your bottom line.
Conclusion
Although landing brand deals can feel intimidating, truthfully, with a few simple changes, landing the right brand deal isn’t quite as out of reach as you think. By applying these strategies, you can increase both your brand deals and continually grow your following.
To learn more about marketing yourself to the right brands and increasing your exposure, create an account on Collabstr. You’ll have access to helpful tools and other resources to help you reach your potential as a creator.
